An experiment in resurrecting the ancient Horn scale animal.

[Voidmonster]

I end up with a lot of very old horn scales that I'd really rather fix than throw out. But some of them have huge chunks missing. I've been thinking about that and how to fix it, and here's my first experiment.

Begin with scales.



This was an old set that I chose because A) I didn't have a razor to go in them, B) they present a worst-case scenario in that they've got a significant amount of translucency and C) they're in bad shape.

I made them worse off by using a burr head on the Dremel and gouging a huge chunk out.

Next, I made some horn powder.




(Thanks for the donor horn, Ogershok!)

Next I poured the powder into the gouge, dripped CA glue on that, then sprinkled more horn powder on top until everything got soaked up.



From there it was just a matter of doing normal CA coats, like you'd do on wood. (coat,sand,coat,sand,coat,sand,coat,and a one and a two, come on, everybody dance!)

The final result.




I did a sloppy job on the finish because I'd already gotten my answer. This does work, but not quite as well as I'd like. Later I'll experiment with blending between regions better. Another technique I want to try is using bits of hair, which if I'm cunning, should let me mimic the warp and weft of the growth pattern.

In the meantime, this is better than nothing.